British Aerospace Plc’s former Bishopgate Systems Ltd terrestial data broadcast services company and customer services division now comprise 85% of the business of Alphameric Plc’s new subsidiary AlphaServ Ltd. When the Guildford, Surrey-based company bought the operations in November 1992 (CI No 2,043), it also acquired 40 active contracts to supplement its own one or two. AlphaServ has two main lines of business: data broadcasting, and the installation and maintenance of data broadcasting equipment. At the moment, installation and maintenance generate the bulk of its turnover and will continue to do so in the short-term because the company boasts a high level of repetitive revenues. To provide a more localised service to a growing customer base in continental Europe, AlphaServ has now opened up two new service centres in France and Germany. In the past, it relied on subcontractors. And managing director Alan Morcombe, a former Bishopgate director, is keen to enter into partnerships with other broadcast suppliers to develop the business further. He is currently in negotiations with the Maxat Ltd subsidiary of France Cables & Radio, itself part of the France Telecom group, which is interested in subcontracting TV broadcasting and installation work. But Morecombe sees the balance changing long-term towards a more equal split between the two activities. He certainly claims to have a competitive edge over his rivals with a store-and-forward broadcast hub that was developed in-house at BAeCom. Rather than providing only a real-time data feed to customers, the hub can implement a two second to one minute delay in sending data and can even place users in order of priority.
Growing trend
This increases utilisation of the bandwidth, and means that customers pay less for the service because the same bandwidth can be sold to different users. Moreover, Morecombe is convinced that two-way broadcasting is the way ahead, and claims that he acquired all the necessary hardware and software to do this from BAe too. But he did add that when the technology does take off, he would be happy to use products manufactured by the three or four players he considers key to the industry, such as General Motors Corp’s Hughes Network Systems; Matra-Marconi Space SA; the GTE Spacenet Inc unit of GTE Corp; and IBM Corp. The main problem with introducing products at the moment, he says, is pricing, but he believes that this will come down over the next couple of years. At the moment, the main services provided by the company are one-way data broadcasting; corporate messaging for such companies as Marks & Spencers Plc, Tesco Plc and National Grid; file transfer for customers such as Scottish Widows; and delivering information to screen-based technology, for example British Rail’s Network SouthEast passenger information terminals. In the UK, where AlphaServ generates between 60% and 70% of its turnover, most of its customers still tend to use terrestrial-based systems. But, in Europe especially, there is a growing trend towards satellite broadcasting as firms become increasingly multinational. To try and exploit this, the company set up a satellite data broadcast installation, covering Hungary, the Czech and Slovak republics and Poland, in November 1992. It’s first customer there is Federal Express. Morecombe says any growth in the area will depend on acquisitions, although he declined to give further details. – Catherine Everett
